The naming of Holden

On the way home from picking up Midnight Tucker, my close friend Chelsea and I texted back and forth, bouncing off names to each other. Unfortunately, I could not bring myself to call him Tucker (or Midnight), having known a horse of that name who I was not necessarily in love with. I knew Chels would have some cool suggestions, as she is an exceptionally clever and creative person.. Her first suggestion for a showname was "Isengrim" - which is a character who makes many appearances in various epics and literary works. I

Isengrim, a wolf in epics and stories.

have a theme for all of my animals - both past and present - and they are all named after pieces of work, literary tales, poems, and songs. The name fit the theme perfectly (and I think it fits him though he is neither slothful nor evil), but still left us trying to decide a great barn name for the horse.

A slew of names were suggested, including some good ones from my mother. However, I couldn't pick just one that "fit" him. He wasn't a Sully or a Connor, nor was he a Judge or a Suttree -- and those would have been my go-tos for names as I've always liked them. Remember the theme I mentioned earlier? It's applicable to their barn names too. But the chosen names just didn't "fit". The horse is stoic but sensitive (remember my earlier post? I think he's "sensibly sensitive", which is just right IMHO), and I wanted a name that would reflect that. The man that I paid to haul him (we can call him the BM, even though he doesn't really manage anything and is not in charge of the barn) had an assortment of suggestions that all were alcohol themed, which made me question if he was more than just a fan of alcohol. Guinness, Henessy and Jameson were among his suggestions - as well as the fact that he believed firmly that the horse had told him explicitly that he wanted a name that started with a "B" - hah. While I love the name Guinness, my friend had a horse of that name and I rode him often during his early transition of the track. He was a great horse and unfortunately had to be put down after a catastrophic injury - and I just couldn't "take" the name. Not that I wanted to listen to BM anyway.

Blood Meridian - Cormac's Masterpiece.

We still hadn't decided a name come Sunday. Chelsea and my mother both suggested I think of names from my favorite literary works - and I thought about it all day on Sunday while ring-stewarding. One of the earlier suggestions on Saturday had been Holden, and I kept thinking of it. My favorite book, Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy, has a character in it named Judge Holden. I started thinking more, as my first association with the name Holden is from Catcher in the Rye, which is another book I loved. I then started thinking about the horse, and came to the conclusion he displayed a remarkable resemblence to both (save he isn't a scalp hunter like the Judge in Cormac's book). The horse "studies" everything and takes everything in stride, much like the Judge in Blood Meridian. But he is also fairly sensitive and unsure of everyone - and seems to be a little jaded about the human race - which is similar to Catcher in the Rye's Holden. So I texted both Chels & my mother and they both approved, and hey presto, Holden was named!